“Stop using the tax system to address social or equity issues”

“It’s time to stop using the tax system to address social engineering or equity issues. It never works. The tax system’s only purpose is to raise the revenue the government needs as simply and efficiently as possible.”

9 Comments

artcroft

Kitty Catkin

Griff.

Gee.
Economics .
Increase the cost to reduce the use.
Transfer the costs onto the user.
Place a value on the use of the commons .
Valid approaches that use tax to engender a desired social or equity outcome by goverment.
Those who have been sucked in by the libertarian propaganda are going to want to minimize tax anyway.
Often the same peploe who often demand that say cannabis users pays for the damage it does.

alloytoo

Let’s not confuse the collection of taxes with the provision of state services.

Tax payers need to view necessary and desirable state services as representing the overwhelming majority of state expenditure.

It’s a demand/supply curve, the price of taxes and the level of state services needs to suit the majority of tax payers or they leave, or begin to engage in avoidance behavior.

Makes taxes overly complicated and they enable avoidance behavior.

The vast majority of social engineering and equity driven taxes are by their nature overly complicated. As a result this they cost more to administer. This is viewed by the taxpayer as undesirable (reducing the demand curve) and at the same time needs to collect more to cover said cost (raising the supply curve).

No one knows how much contraband tobacco is landed in New Zealand either. But in Australia it is estimated at 15% of the cigarettes sold are contraband. Denying the state of some $1.5 billion in taxes.